Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I recently shared
a moment with my readers in which I recounted the trouble I’d been having
breathing.

After visiting
a lung specialist at the behest of two urgent care doctors I had seen in
December, I underwent a battery of breathing tests and x-rays. The lung specialist informed me that the
breathing tests revealed that my lung capacity was a meager 54%. The x-rays he ordered were inconclusive so he
ordered a high resolution CT scan of my lungs.

The CT scan
was done on February 4th and I have waited and waited and waited for this day
to find out the results.

Meanwhile,
Adrienne of Adrienne’s
Corner, read the post about my health scare and called for prayers. As the word spread, good friend and blogger
Bob Belvedere of The
Camp of the Saints did the same.

This site was
visited by so many wonderful folks who wished me well and promised prayers for
a good outcome that I was overwhelmed.

So here’s what
happened yesterday. My appointment was
at 11:15AM. All the doctors were running
late. I was finally called into the
examination room at 11:55AM. At 12:29 PM
my doctor entered the room.

I sat there
frozen—too scared to ask THE question.

I know my eyes
were as big as saucers when he said, “Well, it’s not bad, but it’s not 100%
either.” The CT scan is showing me that
you do not have interstitial
lung disease. What it does show is that
you have chronic bronchitis and possibly occupational asthma.”

He said that
my shortness of breath on exertion, cough, fatigue, and chest congestion
were most likely from chronic bronchitis.

Here, I will
admit that I thought bronchitis was no big deal, but now I know
differently. Chronic bronchitis
is a long-term, often irreversible respiratory illness. To be categorized as having chronic
bronchitis you must have a daily mucus-producing cough (check) that persists
for at least three months a year (check), at least two years in a row
(check). This is not to be confused with acute
bronchitis which is a mild inflammation of the air passages of the lungs that
clears up in a few days.

So, what the
doctor thought initially, that I had restrictive lung disease turned out to be
wrong based on the CT scan. But, I’m not
out of the woods either. Turns out I do
have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) that can lead to gradual
deterioration of the lungs. It’s the
fourth-leading cause of death in this country.

My doctor
prescribed an inhaler called Dulera®. It’s
specifically for asthma. He wants to see
me again in 30 days to see if this medication helps.

I want to
thank all the folks who stopped by here to leave their thoughts and
prayers. If ever there is a time that
you feel prayers don’t work. Kick
yourself in the pants. It does. Perfect strangers were stopping by telling me
they were joining the prayer brigade.

I guess the
best way to say how much you guys mean to me is to quote Anne Frank, “Crying
can bring relief, as long as you don’t cry alone.”God bless you all. Thank you.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

“If we’re going to be serious about deficit
reduction and debt reduction, then it’s going to have to be a matter of shared
sacrifice—at least as long as I’m president. And I’m going to be president for
the next four years…”

While
appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Home Depot Founder Ken Langone gave his dire
prediction:

"…we
don't know when the storm is going to hit.
It has to happen. If you look at our debt to GDP, eventually you
reach a point where there's no turning back."

He used an
analogy to make his point. "If you had one meal left, and you had your
grandchild with you, would you eat it or give it to your grandchild?"

He said all
people would say "give it to my grandchild."

But pursuing
the president's vision, he argued, "[Is] eating the grandchildren's
breakfast, lunch and dinner right now. And the [grandchildren] haven't been
born yet."

As the “Whores
Of Babble On” celebrate themselves with the usual back-slapping and lavish party
to present a few gilded eunuch statuettes to their most favored members,
viewers of the 85th Academy Awards will be subjected to names being
read from a series of dramatically opened envelopes during a long-winded 4-hour
marathon designed to rid the glitterati of their ego-poverty.

It’s much ado
about nothing, of course, but let’s not forget that Democratic activists in
Hollywood are solidly behind ‘Ol Jug Ears having given at least $30 million to his
2012 campaign.

Its
sequestration now, sequestration tomorrow, sequestration forever and the
current occupant of the Oval Office deserves to win an Oscar for Worst Actor In
A Miniseries.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

When our
perfumed potentate makes the claim that the Sequestration Transparency Act of
2012 he
signed into law on August 7, 2012 will cause anal leakage and 24 hour
erections, maybe I’ll start taking him seriously.

“Under Obama
people are not motivated to be better; they are motivated to follow the path of
generational failure.”

[SNIP]

“I submit that
America’s mistake was electing a color in the guise of a would-be, hoped-for
leader. Had America dismissed color and opted instead for a leader with proven
ability to unite the people we would be better off today. But America elected a
color who practices class warfare and the denunciation of those who are
successful.”

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Democrat Colorado
state representative Joe Salazar stepped in a pile of cow patties on February
15, 2013 during a debate to outlaw concealed-carry permit holders from carrying
guns in university buildings.

Poor baby
thought a woman who felt like she was being followed and felt like she was
going to be raped could shoot an innocent bystander.

The chunky, bowtie-wearing
idiot said
on the floor of the House, "Because you just don’t know who you’re
gonna be shooting at. And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be
raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel
like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun
and you pop…pop a round at somebody. It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we
have safe zones, that's why we have the whistles.”

“I’m sorry if
I offended anyone. That was absolutely not my intention. We were having a
public policy debate on whether or not guns makes people safer on campus. I
don’t believe they do. That was the point I was trying to make. If anyone
thinks I’m not sensitive to the dangers women face, they’re wrong.”

The gun
grabbers and fraidy cats' definition of gun
control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and
strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow "morally superior" to
a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

My
retort: A woman who demands further gun
control legislation is like a chicken that roots for Colonel Sanders.

The video of Dr. Benjamin Carson
speaking at the National
Prayer Breakfast has, as of this posting, garnered 2,031,215 views on
YouTube™.

Dr. Carson’s speech reduced to ashes the
policies of the current administration.
Not one word was uttered that was critical of this president, but
persuasively centered on individual responsibility, the corollary effects of moral
decay, an exploded national debt, the destructive effects of political
correctness and class warfare.

Dr. Carson
believes that doctors who have "learned how to make decisions based on
facts, empirical data, rather than on ideology should be involved more in
politics.”

That speech created
a firestorm on the Left. Flyover country
fell in love with him and many are calling on him to run for president. Asked if he would consider running, Carson
said he’d run only "if God grabs me by the collar and sticks me in that
arena."

"I have
so many emails from people saying that, I could probably finance my campaign if
each one gave me a nickel."

Jack
Kelly, a columnist for The Pittsburg
Post-Gazette wrote, “Dr. Carson has never held public office—a yellow
light, if not a red flag, for many. But you can learn what a president needs to
know without holding office, and we've ample evidence that holding office is no
guarantee you ever will.”

The
juxtaposition of a famed pediatric neurosurgeon on the dais at the National
Prayer Breakfast standing just feet away from the community-organizer-turned-emperor-with-no-clothes
vividly declares that Dr. Carson is everything Obama is not. This phenomenon strongly suggests that
Americans are starved for leadership.

Just imagine,
as I have in the Photoshop™ I created for this post that Dr. Carson would run.

The strong
reaction to Carson’s speech tells us a lot about how abysmal this regime has
been and will continue to be over the next four years. The Left sees Carson as the GOP’s “Great
Black Hope.”

The 2008
Presidential Medal of Freedom winner is a threat to the destructive ideology of
progressives and as one crackpot blogger wrote, “The problem of course is that
the Republicans are not really looking for a black candidate; they’re looking
for a shill for bad policies. They’re looking for a puppet that will stand at
the podium with a Koch brother hand up his ass. So on goes the search for
someone to stand up there and look black (Herman Cain) or brown (Mario Rubio)
but espouse the policies of old, white men.”

Mark my words,
liberals will attempt to muzzle Dr. Carson, but he appears to be prepared to be
“Palinized”.

“There are a
group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everyone go along
to get along,” Dr. Carson said, “but that’s not going to be very helpful for us
in the long run in terms of solving our problems, and someone has to be
courageous enough to actually stand up to the bullies.”

It started off
as a response to Peter Kirsanow’s two-paragraph post at National
Review in which Kirsanow wrote:

“As if to
dispel recent assertions that his ego has grown even larger
since the November election, during yesterday’s Google fireside chat the
president answered a question about his administration’s deportation
of illegal immigrants as follows: ‘This is something I’ve struggled with
throughout my presidency. I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the
emperor of the United States.’”

“Jay Carney
denies that at the time the president made that statement someone
was standing just behind his left shoulder, holding a crown and
whispering, ‘All glory is fleeting…’”

Is it just me
or was that a Grade A Prime Zinger? Yes. It. Was.

Of course,
when I heard that our bat-eared, abysmal, perfumed potentate had made that
ridiculous statement I laughed my ass off and got to work creating a banner for
this blog that was in keeping with the Black Narcissus’ impression of himself.

This guy just
doesn’t grasp the roles and responsibilities of the office of the presidency.

During the War
for Independence, George Washington was granted unlimited authority to
prosecute the war against the British.
After the war ended, many advocated his becoming America’s first
king. He declined the notion believing
it would be inappropriate and dishonorable.

One of his
greatest legacies lies in his resisting the allure of political power in favor
of a Republic. Obama would jump at the
chance.

Steyn writes:

“But the
president’s sonorous, gaseous banalities did serve notice that the Republicans
don’t want to get too far behind on his “goals.” He’s right that Washington
“moves forward” like a pantomime horse lurching awkwardly across the stage and
with the Republicans always playing the rear end. A “bipartisan” agreement
means that the Democrats get what they want now and Republicans at some distant
far-off date. Try it: New taxes and government programs now, alleged deficit
reduction of $2.5 trillion a decade hence. Illegal-immigrant amnesty now,
alleged rigorous border enforcement the day after tomorrow. Washington has
settled into a comfortable pattern: instant gratification for spending binges
that do nothing for any of the problems they purport to be solving assuaged by
meaningless commitments to start the twelve-step program next year, or next
decade, or next century. No other big spender among the advanced democracies
lies to itself about the gulf between its appetites and its self-discipline.”

“’Tonight,
let’s declare,’ declared the president, ‘that in the wealthiest nation on earth…‘
Whoa, hold it right there. The ‘wealthiest nation on earth’ is actually the
Brokest Nation in History. But don’t worry: ‘Nothing I’m proposing tonight
should increase our deficit by a single dime.’”

“’Should’?
Consciously or not, the president is telling us his State of the Union show is
a crock, and he knows it. Under Magical Fairyland budgeting, Obama-sized
government ‘shouldn’t’ increase our debt. Yet mysteriously it does. Every time.
Because, in a political culture institutionally incapable of course correction,
that’s just the way it is.”

The money quote from
Steyn’s piece:

“So, in public, the modern ruler issues goals, orders dreams,
commands unicorns. People seem to like this sort of thing.”

Politics is
not a playground, it’s a battlefield. Here are a few links from
conservative bloggers who are waging a war of words against the misanthropy,
priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism of the
mainstream media bobble-head dolls and groupthink poodles of the press corps.

“Big
government needs cheap voters. Big business needs cheap labor. Big government
wants big business to pick up the tab for their cheap votes through higher
taxes. Big business wants cheap labor without having to pay for their social
welfare benefits. After the obligatory tug of war wraps up, the tab for all
those cheap votes and cheap labor will be dumped on the middle class which
is being forced to fund its own destruction.”

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I am keenly
aware that this little blog is read by a fairly small number of visitors who
come here because they know me or became aware of this site because of the
great honor it received recently for its Photoshops™.

Because
Political Clown Parade is a mostly unknown site, I doubt that the sparse
postings of late have been noticed. For
those who are regular visitors here, the question may have arisen as to why
there have been so few posts.

Allow me to
bring you into the fold.

On December
11, 2012 I left work early to visit a local urgent care center because I was
feeling like death warmed over. The
doctor who saw me immediately diagnosed me with acute bronchitis. He ordered me to take not one but two
breathing treatments to reduce the wheezing and allow me to breathe a little
better. I was given prescriptions to
ease the coughing, antibiotics to clear up the infection and an inhaler of
albuterol.

After about
two weeks, I thought I was on the mend only to suffer a relapse and a return to
the urgent care center I had visited before.

The doctor who
saw me then prescribed a stronger inhaler, Combivent®, a bronchodilator
indicated for use in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD), another round of antibiotics, a cough suppressant and a stern
recommendation to seek the help of a lung specialist.

I called a
pulmonologist whose practice is located at a hospital in my town and was set up
immediately for chest x-rays and a battery of breathing tests on January 17th. After the x-rays and the breathing tests I
went upstairs to see the lung specialist.

We discussed
my long history of bouts with pneumonia, bronchitis and sinusitis. He explored with me the various problems I’ve
had breathing and the environment in which I work. He decided to have me return to radiology
after my appointment to have several cranial x-rays taken to determine whether
I had marked problems with my sinuses and ordered a dozen or so blood
tests: mycoplasma pneumoniae, a complete
blood count with differential (measures the levels of red blood cells, white
blood cells, platelet levels, hemoglobin and hematocrit), immunoglobulins, Westergren
Sedimentation Rate (measures inflammation and risk of heart attack) and an alpha-1
antitrypsin blood test which can help determine if there is the presence of
lung tissue degradation characteristic of pulmonary emphysema.

I returned to
the lung specialist on January 28th to learn the results of all these tests and
x-rays.

Here’s what he
said: the breathing tests showed that I
have a lung capacity of 54 percent. You
read that right: 54%.

He said my
chest x-rays looked good. No evidence of
pneumonia, emphysema or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Though there is no sign of obstructive lung
disease I do have restrictive lung disease.
The bad news is he doesn’t know what’s causing this.

On February 4th,
he ordered me to get a high resolution CT scan of my lungs. I have been waiting until my next appointment,
which is on the 25th, to learn what the CT scan shows all the while struggling
to breathe like a healthy person would and trying not to freak out.

There’s just
not enough information out there about restrictive lung disease, but what does
exist sounds pretty dire to me: If the likely
diagnosis is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), early treatment may slow the
disease. If the patient responds poorly,
they usually die within two to three years.

Treatment
includes effective coughing techniques, use of steroids for chronic
inflammation, use of supplemental oxygen and energy conservation and relaxation
techniques.

So, I wait and
wonder. While I wait, I will appreciate
every little beautiful moment in every day.

The
Dallas News reported that Barney, who was 12, passed away after a
battle with lymphoma.

The former
president sent out a statement:

"Laura
and I are sad to announce that our Scottish terrier, Barney, has passed away.
The little fellow had been suffering from lymphoma and after twelve and a half
years of life, his body could not fight off the illness.”

"Barney
and I enjoyed the outdoors. He loved to accompany me when I fished for bass at
the ranch. He was a fierce armadillo hunter. At Camp David, his favorite
activity was chasing golf balls on the chipping green.”

"Barney
guarded the South Lawn entrance of the White House as if he were a Secret
Service agent. He wandered the halls of the West Wing looking for treats from
his many friends. He starred in Barney Cam and gave the American people
Christmas tours of the White House. Barney greeted Queens, Heads of State, and
Prime Ministers. He was always polite and never jumped in their laps.”

"Barney
was by my side during our eight years in the White House. He never discussed
politics and was always a faithful friend. Laura and I will miss our pal."

Friday, February 1, 2013

The
larger-than-life Koch, who breezed through the streets of New York flashing his
signature thumbs-up sign, won a national reputation with his feisty style.
"How'm I doing?" was his trademark question to constituents.

Edward
I. Koch, the master showman of City Hall, who parlayed shrewd political
instincts and plenty of chutzpah into three tumultuous terms as mayor of New
York with all the tenacity, zest and combativeness that personified his city of
golden dreams, died Friday morning at age 88.

Mr. Koch’s spokesman, George Arzt, said the former
mayor died at 2 a.m. from congestive heart failure.

There were
plenty of fireworks at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing of former
Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel. The Obama
pick for Secretary of Defense went through three “murder boards,” or mock
hearings, in preparation for the real one.

“Given that
Iran, the people—I’m quoting right now from Iran—people of the Middle East, the
Muslim region and North Africa, people of these regions hate America from the
bottom of their heart. It further said Israel is a cancerous tumor in the heart
of the Islamic world. They further said Iran’s warriors are ready and willing
to wipe Israel off the map. The question I’d like to ask you, and you can
answer for the record if you’d like, why do you think the Iranian foreign
ministry so strongly supports your nomination to be the Secretary of Defense?”

“I have a
difficult enough time with American politics, Senator. I have no idea, but
thank you. And I’ll be glad to respond further for the record,” Hagel said.

Apparently
that’s not the only thing Hagel has difficulty with. In his closing statement Hagel admitted:

"A number
of questions were asked of me today about specific programs, submarine
programs, different areas of technology and acquisitions, and our superior
technology. I've said I do not know enough about it. I don't. There
are a lot of things I don't know about."

"If
confirmed, I intend to know a lot more than I do. I will have to. But at the
same time, I would never think that this, as I said earlier, is about
me or I will be running anything."

"I will
be the leader. I'll be responsible. I will be accountable, but I've got to rely
on the right teams, the right people to bring those people together. And again,
it's accountability and responsibility. I would stop there, if that gives you
some sense of how I would intend to do this business."

Why bother
Chucky? In a cringe-worthy moment that left many shaking their heads, Hagel
said, “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

Sen. Kelly
Ayotte (R-NH) begged to differ: “It matters what you think,” she found herself
saying in response.

Members of the
Senate's Armed Services Committee confessed they were "shocked at how
ill-prepared" Hagel was for his hearing to be confirmed as defense
secretary. Well, if CNN spent time on
his stupidity you know it was bad. Here’s
Dana Bash from CNN: